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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Will be my first time seeing The Cure in Colorado, and my first time seeing them play in a football stadium parking lot. Or any type of parking lot, for that matter. :) Should be fun!

Update (08/16/14): And my Chicago pass arrived today! 2nd time seeing them in Illinois, though first time in Chicago proper. Dream Tour was in Tinley Park, IL. My favorite show on that tour, and Top 5 of all time.
Also my 2nd time seeing them in a city park, and at a festival. Voodoo 2013 was the first for both of those.

Now to hope for no schedule conflicts, so that I can see some combination of The Cure, Billy Bragg, Tegan & Sara, Cheap Trick, and Weezer. But if I can just see The Cure & Billy Bragg, I'll be happy.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Record Collector will be running a Cure feature in next month's issue, which will be on sale June 19th. (Thanks Lars)

Update (06/18/14): From Record Collector on Facebook: "Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances - the upcoming CURE feature previously advertised will now run at a later date."

Update (07/14/14): "Just got the new July Record Collector (UK). There is an ad for the August edition, on sale Aug 14 in UK, and it says, “Next Month in Record Collector: The Cure (Honest!)” (Thanks artwwweb)

The Cure ditched the wallowing and tried to get laid
By Josh Modell Aug. 12th, 2014 1:00 PM

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, with Let’s Be Cops coming to theaters, we’re picking our favorite songs with “let’s” in the title.

By many accounts, the members of The Cure were in relatively terrible mental shape around 1982, which makes sense considering they sang about death and dying for three albums in a row (that’d be the classic platters of misery Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography). Robert Smith seemed fairly sure he didn’t even want to continue the band, so he figured it’d be fine to take a sharp turn, which took the form of the 1982 single “Let’s Go To Bed.” Smith called the song “stupid,” “rubbish,” and “a joke,” saying it was “everything I hated about music at the time.” It was, of course, a massive hit, and it led Smith down a poppy path that would produce some of his finest work in the ensuing years. Even by modern pop standards, “Let’s Go To Bed” doesn’t sound particularly pandering; sure, it has some “doo-doo”s and a friendly-enough keyboard sound, but it’s far from high gloss. (The biggest hits of 1982 were by Olivia Newton-John and Survivor, to provide some reference point.) No, “Let’s Go To Bed” seemed like something almost entirely new, a pop subgenre inspired by the dour goth from whence it came, but with an odd self-assurance. And as much as Smith liked to shit-talk the song at the time, it clearly inspired him to make more like it: “The Walk” and “The Lovecats” followed, complete with a raft of B-sides that signaled The Cure Version 3.0. (Version 1.0 was the differently poppy “Boys Don’t Cry” era.) And ultimately it led to The Cure’s finest hour, 1985’s The Head On The Door. (Thanks @TacchinoGigante)

Under The Radar has an interview with Rachael & Neil of Slowdive, where the band once again mentions their love for The Cure:

"Rachel had a slight goth leaning that I certainly didn't share. I
really hated all that stuff," Halstead says, laughing. "But then Nick
kind of liked that stuff as well, and we all really liked The Cure."

"I used to love The Smiths—I still do—and
The Cure," says Goswell. "Nick would probably say his bass playing was
inspired in part by Simon Gallup and in part by Hooky [Peter Hook] from
New Order. I think those two are bass guitar gods in his eyes. Neil was
more indie, like The Primitives and Talulah Gosh and stuff, in the early
days." (Thanks John)